Caused Region-Wide Travel Delays Affecting Hundreds Of Flights

The FAA has confirmed that a U-2 spy plane transiting southern California was the cause of a computer glitch at the LA ARTCC facility that delayed hundreds of flights earlier this week.

In a statement to NBC News, the FAA said that the the problems stemmed from "problems while processing a flight plan filed for a U-2 aircraft that operates at very high altitudes under visual flight rules.”

The ARTCC computers were trying to separate aircraft flying at altitudes that were miles different. The FAA said it does not have a specific technical explanation for the problem, but the U-2 flight apparently caused an "overload" in the ERAM system at the ARTCC. In its statement, the FAA said that the system treated the U-2, flying at FL600, as an airplane operating below 10,000 feet. The agency said the conflict "used a large amount of available memory and interrupted the computer’s other flight-processing functions.”

The problem caused the FAA to issue a nationwide ground stop for flights heading to the southwestern U.S. that lasted about an hour.

(U-2 pictured in file photo)

FMI: www.faa.gov